March 8 is International Women's Day, and Sony is marking the occasion with a free dynamic PS4 theme. The theme's wallpaper includes a variety of characters from PlayStation games, including Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn), Ellie (The Last of Us), and Chloe (Uncharted: The Lost Legacy).

Divinity: Original Sin 2 was one of the best games of 2017, offering a lengthy adventure and decisions that actually mattered. Today, Larian Studios is announcing that the game isn't quite done yet. A series of free "gift bags" are coming in 2019, starting today.

"Not to be mistaken for Loot Boxes (which are hard, ostensibly containing loot), Gift Bags are soft, and contain gifts," Larian says. "Each Gift Bag costs exactly no amount of money to players, and will be patched in periodically to each platform."

Today's gift bag includes character-customization items, including new faces, hairstyles, and facial features. The next one will have more of a gameplay slant, with features and content "inspired by our modding community."

The developers behind Ashes of the Singularity announced a new tower defense game today set in the same universe, called Siege of Centauri.

You'll play as the commander of the defense of Earth's first space colony, making decisions to save your territory from tens of thousands of encroaching alien machines. According to the press release, victories in Siege of Centauri expand the colony to new parts of the planet, which is met by "increasing aggression by the enemy."

In an interview with The Telegraph, Hidetaka Miyazaki – the esteemed director of the Dark Souls franchise, Bloodborne, and the upcoming Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – voiced a fascination with battle royale games. When asked about From Software's plans to possibly contribute to the genre, Miyazaki considered the possibility: "These games are definitely fun," Miyazaki said. "And we’re interested in the patterns they are taking. If we did it, it might be a bit different! But we’re definitely interested and there’s definitely that possibility in the future. We’d love to take a crack at them some day." Eventually, Miyazaki goes on to talk about the high production rate of single-player experiences (mentioning titles like Devil May Cry 5 and God of War) and how battle royale games provide a much-needed level of gameplay diversity.

Hidetaka Miyazaki won a Lifetime Achievement Award last year; check out his thoughts on the prestigious commendation. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice arrives to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on March 22.

Apex Legends developer Respawn was hesitant to tweak its characters and make significant gameplay changes around launch, as its 50 million players were still learning to play the game. Today, though, the team revealed the first major changes coming in the battle royale's inaugural competitive season.

The first weapons to see changes are the Wingman and the Peacekeeper. Respawn has reduced the rate of fire in order to move the Wingman into "the hand cannon space and away from full auto Deagle." They've also adjusted the rate of fire on the Peacekeeper with the Shotgun Bolt attachment too, making players more vulnerable if they miss their target. The scarcity of energy ammo and weapons makes mastering these weapons a challenge, so Respawn has increased the availability of both. These weapon changes are already live in the game.

Season 1 will introduce significant character changes, too. The hitboxes on some of its large-rig characters will be adjusted – Respawn says they're currently underpowered compared to the five small and medium rig characters. Since changing hitbox sizes has a significant impact on the game, the team is waiting a bit longer before rolling out a patch so it can debug the updates.

Paradox Interactive, the Swedish publisher and developer of games like Prison Architect and Cities: Skylines, is opening a brand new studio in Berkeley, California run by Rod Humble called Paradox Tectonic. Humble comes from Electronic Arts and Second Life creators Linden Labs, where he served as executive vice president for the EA Play label and chief executive officer, respectively.

He brings his impressive resume to, as Humble explains, "create open, fun, beautiful games which respect the players’ intelligence and enables their creativity, freedom, emotion, and sharing."

With much experience building rich simulated worlds like Second Life and The Sims, Humble seems primed to expand Paradox's already deep catalog of simulation and building games with a focus on perhaps something akin to those previous games. That is speculation, but his expertise seems perfectly tailored to fill a gap in the specific niche market that Paradox games tend to fill.

Paradox Interactive, the Swedish publisher and developer of games like Prison Architect and Cities: Skylines, is opening a brand new studio in Berkeley, California run by Rod Humble called Paradox Tectonic. Humble comes from Electronic Arts and Second Life creators Linden Labs, where he served as executive vice president for the EA Play label and chief executive officer, respectively.

He brings his impressive resume to, as Humble explains, "create open, fun, beautiful games which respect the players’ intelligence and enables their creativity, freedom, emotion, and sharing."

With much experience building rich simulated worlds like Second Life and The Sims, Humble seems primed to expand Paradox's already deep catalog of simulation and building games with a focus on perhaps something akin to those previous games. That is speculation, but his expertise seems perfectly tailored to fill a gap in the specific niche market that Paradox games tend to fill.

EA is having its big pre-E3 event, EA Play, this year, and it's got all the features you've come to expect from it, except for the company's annual press conference.

The event, which takes place June 7-9 and just a few days before E3 kicks off June 11, begins its first day with a few livestreams featuring gameplay and "insights from the teams" behind some of EA's biggest titles.

The last two days will feature players attending the event getting hands-on time with EA games, as well as streams from select content creators. According to the company, there will be "exclusive gameplay reveals, developer talks, and breaking news." Tickets will be on sale next month.

Some of my best Battlefield memories happened in the intense rush mode, which was introduced and best supported by the duo of Bad Company games. The mode focused the battle on sectors with two fixed positions, which forced teams to adopt smart offensive and defensive tactics if they wanted to hold back the onrushers or push back the frontline. The mode was largely left behind in favor of Breakthrough in the past two Battlefield games, but it's returning for a limited time to Battlefield V.

Starting today, players can jump into the 32-player mode on four maps – Devastation, Narvik, and Twisted Steel. It will be interesting to see how the fortification system plays into the experience. The mode is only sticking around until March 20, presumably because EA and DICE want to drive demand now before moving to new featured Tides of War content later.

The music and design of Gris were big pillars of the puzzle-platformer's overall experience, and fans who want more are getting it thanks to a free update from developer Nomada Studio.

To celebrate 300,000 sales, the Barcelona developer is letting users listen to unused music and look at designs for the game from the main menu. The game is also 15-percent off on Switch and PC for a limited time.